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Pinterest acquires VisualGraph to beef up visual search

While it has been actively seeking new areas for growth, Pinterest is playing to one of its core strengths — visual search — by acquiring two-person startup VisualGraph. The company will join Pinterest in the engineering department, where it will fortify the company’s image search system.

Pinterest has not disclosed the amount of the acquisition, but did share some details about what the VisualGraph’s Kevin Jing and David Liu will be doing at their new home. Jing will be heading the company’s new “visual discovery team,” likely adding onto the technology built while at VisualGraph. Jing and Liu have experience in object recognition, distributed search and machine learning, which, when combined, make searching for photos by context much easier. As Pinterest continues to expand its content, smart search is key to keeping the platform usable.